Saturday, October 1, 2011

Dan Rayburn (pictured) analyzes in a recent StreamingMedia blog post, the challenges faced by Akamai, the leader of the CDN business.

One issue is about the "changes in the market also mean that Akamai's position inside the last mile is also facing trouble. As more telcos, carriers, ISPs and MSOs start to build and deploy their own CDNs [see - "Why Should Telcos Build their Own CDN?" - here], Akamai's value inside many of these networks is diminishing. While Akamai won't come out and say there is a problem, the whole reason Akamai is now trying to create a licensed CDN (LCDN) [here] product is to try and stay inside the last mile and provide more value to the carriers" .

Dan mentions the recent Edgecast/PeepApp CDN/cache joint offering [here] and says "Why Akamai is trying to build everything in-house I don't know, but if I was them, I would acquire EdgeCast and then acquire a transparent caching provider, ideally PeerApp, which would then give Akamai an instant carrier grade CDN and transparent caching solution for telcos .. Such a platform would solve all three of the delivery needs for telcos, carriers and ISPs. It would be a true carrier grade CDN and transparent caching solution, all in one platform"

See "Pressure On Akamai Growing, Company Needs To Make Some Acquisitions To Jumpstart Their Business" - here.